The Shoopuf in the Room
by PrettyGothGirl
Summary: RG: Rikku and Gippal conveniently meet and both are thinking about the same thing, but they aren't talking about it.


**The Shoopuf in the Room**  
_by PrettyGothGirl_

All Disclaimers Apply  
**Summary:** Rikku and Gippal conveniently meet each other and they are thinking about the same thing but aren't actually talking about it.  
**A/N:** Okay, really conceptual title I know but yeah. I ended up doing this for a three word challenge over at Quite The Couple, wasn't meant to be a three word challenge or quite this long. But it is. I was also going to end it on a kiss, and then realize I always end things on a kiss or so it feels so I didn't and it was hard not too. HARD. Ack, anyways, on with the story.

Rikku was drowning her troubles at the bar. Not the Celsius' bar because it would be too open and she didn't want to answer questions to why she was sitting and staring into her drink instead of drinking it. She was at a Lucan sports bar instead. She wasn't really even sitting at the bar. It was too crowded with people lounging against it, getting drinks and watching the games. She sighed and watched ripples tremble over the surface of her drink. She didn't even like the drink she'd ordered. It was too sweet and a bit too alcoholic for her tastes, sweet covering the alcohol. He liked it. She'd ordered it without even thinking about it, because it was something he ordered, which was her trouble, trouble with a capital G.

Gippal. She sighed again and kicked her legs back and forth. She hadn't been lying to Yuna and Paine when she said she had someone she was in love with. Someone equaled Gippal. She loved him or thought she did. She spent enough time daydreaming about him, his lips, his hands… She didn't know why she was bothering to try and keep it a secret. It had to be as obvious and transparent as the desert sun how much she loved him or at least thought she loved him. She didn't know. Every time she was near him she thought her heart would pound right out of her chest and at times she didn't even have to be near him.

She wished she had someone to talk to, someone who would understand, another girl. Yuna was sweet, but genuinely naïve and confused when it came to stuff like this. Paine, Rikku shuddered. She didn't need Paine's dry and often sarcastic assessment of feelings. And Lulu, well, she'd never felt that close to Lulu. Sometimes, she felt that because she was younger than Yuna and Paine, they didn't take her seriously anyways. It was if because she was younger she couldn't have had the same deep emotional experiences that they had. It was chocobo turds, but she always felt left out and a little humiliated when they implied it. You'll understand when you're older Rikku. Yet, by the time she got older, they'd be older too and because they were older, shouldn't they be trying to help her out. She sighed. Not that it mattered. She wouldn't even know where to begin to tell someone. At times she felt she couldn't tell anyone. It was too confusing and too buried in her heart. Besides, she wasn't even sure if he reciprocated the feelings. Not that it mattered one way or the other if she went to someone with her problems. It'd still be nice to know though before she embarrassed herself.

She picked up the glass, took a sip and grimaced. It coated her tongue, too sweet, too cloying. She set it back down and wished she'd ordered something else.

It had been so long since she'd gotten a positive sign from him, and it wasn't until the last that she'd known there were signs at all. He'd been leaving, and then he'd kissed her, a little chaste awkward kiss. He hadn't even touched her otherwise, just their lips pressed together. Then, he'd gone. And there was probably nothing to it, except when her other male friends left to explore Spira and take up jobs outside of Home they hadn't kissed her.

She shook her head sharply. That was two years ago and he was one and half years older than her. He had to have moved on by now. He had all those workers at the Faction and even she would admit, if asked, how handsome he was. Her stomach twisted into a little knot. She wouldn't be surprised if he had had several girlfriends by now, all of them taller and prettier, all over Spira. It wasn't like he was treating her any different than he had before he left. She frowned. She was nothing but a child to him still. Someone to push around, tug on her braids and tease unmercifully. He'd want a woman now, someone who could match him experience for experience.

And she couldn't do that. He'd kissed her, once, and then he'd left. There hadn't been anyone since. She'd been too busy…

She hadn't been looking. She knew he was around Spira somewhere, still alive, still kicking. She'd been looking only hard enough to try and find him, Gippal, the boy who'd kissed her and had been cute enough back then doing it. Now, she didn't want to think about the now. He wasn't hers now.

She groaned and closed her eyes. She pushed her bangs back and rubbed her temples. She had it bad, whatever it was. She dropped her hands back to the glass and hunched over it. She was such a fool.

Someone sat next to her. She saw lilac in her peripheral vision. Her throat caught, Gippal. He reached over and tugged at her glass. She released it before she could give in and grab his hands, intertwine their fingers and rub the metal bands around them. He replaced it with another drink, something she liked. Something you could actually taste the alcohol in without it being drowned out by a dozen other flavors of sticky syrup. Sticky syrup…

She closed her fingers around the new glass and stared into it. She could literally feel him sitting next to her. She was just aware of him. Her spine tingled and tensed, tensing her back muscles as she waited for him to do something. Her stomach knotted again. What if he did do something? What if he didn't?

"Whatcha doin' here?" He asked.

She jumped. Damn it. It was like his voice caressed her spine. She turned her head to look at him. He was looking at her, his whole head and half his body facing her. She clutched the glass tighter. His face just happened to be in shadow, so all she could see was a little bit of light glinting off his eye. "What are you doing here?" She shot back.

"I came to watch the game." He jerked his head towards one of the screens that faced the table.

She glanced at it. "Oh." Her shoulder's slumped. The back her eyes tickled. He hadn't come to see her. Though why it disappointed her, she couldn't say. How would he know where she was at any given time? She lived in an airship with the possibility being high of her being anywhere in Spira at any given moment.

"I asked first."

She looked back down into her glass, turning it between her fingers. "I came to think."

"Think? Here?" Gippal waved a hand around the bar which was filled to capacity between the tables and the bar itself. The noise of the game drowned by the noise of everyone talking and the music blared over the speakers. Truth to tell she hadn't even noticed any of it.

"The Celsius is too crowded." She didn't look up from her drink. Not that the bar wasn't crowded, just it wasn't crowded with people she knew and was related too. Paine would know in a heartbeat what she was thinking about and so would Dachi, They wouldn't mean to be cruel about it, but they would be and if Anikki got wind of it. He'd piss and moan for days about how she was moping over Gippal, the boy who got all the action but not from her. And she just wanted to think, get her emotions and her head straight a little before going back. She tossed her head a little and her ponytail fell like a curtain between them.

"Oh." He wished she wouldn't do that, cut him out. He wanted to change sides with her, so his watching her would be less obvious. He wouldn't have known she was here, unless the bartender hadn't said something about making that drink once already tonight. It wasn't a common drink. He'd been kind enough to point Rikku out which made Gippal change his order to something she preferred. Why she was drinking his favorite drink had confused him.

She pushed the drink away and laid her head on her arms with a sigh, exposing the length of her back, mostly bare except for that tiny string. Skin so smooth he wanted to touch it to see if his fingers caught, kiss along the bumps. He turned his gaze to the game, not even seeing it. Shit, she was so beautiful. She didn't even seem to know it. She'd matured in the last two years. She was a world traveler now, a world savior. She had experiences he couldn't even dream of having. Surely, she had a boy in every port now. Did she remember their kiss even?

Probably not, why should she? He'd been such an idiot back then. She had to have been kissed hundreds of times since then by someone who would actually touch her and hold her close. He'd been too scared if he held her close back then he wouldn't ever let her go. He should have held her. He should have thrown her over his shoulder and taken her with him like extra baggage he'd almost forgotten. It might have changed things. It might have driven them apart. But then again, they'd fallen apart so focused on the bigger picture, and at least he had neglected the details. He was sure she hadn't. Why should she? She was young, alive and famous with candy pink lips and a tiny waist and breasts and… he sipped his drink. It was best not to think about things like that. He could catalogue her details all day and not stop giving the dreams of what he wanted to do to them.

She turned her head and watched him. She trailed her eyes along his profile. It wasn't until you saw him in profile that you'd notice his jaw and how strong it really was indicating how stubborn he could be. She knew he couldn't see her. The eye patch made it impossible, and she'd have advance warning if he looked at her. Her eyes drooped. What was he thinking about? Blitzball, the Machine Faction, his girlfriend? She didn't know and wasn't sure how to ask. He was watching the game anyways. She smiled, probably blitzball then. He sipped his drink and she watched his adam's apple bounce up and down. She eyed his neck. Was it really a bad thing to want to nuzzle and taste it a little? What did his skin taste like? What did he smell like? What would he feel like under her hands? Would he let her experiment?

If she wasn't in love with him, she was at least in lust with him. How could she be in love with him? They didn't know each other anymore. They were next to strangers. They'd changed. She wasn't so idealistic to think that they could meet up again and connect. Unlike Tidus, she hadn't been dead for two years. She'd grown. She was different now, older and a little surer of what she wanted. She wanted Gippal or at least someone like Gippal to touch and taste and cuddle next to, someone to laugh with and wrestle with and just be with without having to talk or touch. She'd really prefer it to be Gippal though.

His head turned and she turned hers back into the cradle of her arms, cheeks warming.

He smirked. He had felt her eyes after a time raising the hairs on the back of his neck. She was so obviously not looking at him, he was sure she had to be looking at him a moment before. He reached over and used a finger to push back her hair, sliding his finger under her scarf caressing the back of his neck and he pushed her ponytail to the other side of her head. He wanted to see her face. She shivered under his hand. Could she like him still? Could he affect her? He tried not to hope too much.

She turned her head back to look at him. "I thought you were watching the game."

"They're taking a break."

She glanced at the screen without lifting her head. "Oh."

He rolled the edge of the scarf between his fingers. "I've been meaning to ask, why the scarf?"

She sat up and he jerked his hand away. "Why not?" She glared at him.

He sighed and looked her outfit over, well, took the excuse to look her over and decided to state the obvious. "You run around in a string bikini and a mini-skirt. If you were trying to be warm, the scarf isn't going to help much."

She looked down at it. "It's soft." And brightly colored, she liked it.

"It's illogical."

She sniffed. "Just because you don't understand it, doesn't make it illogical." She reached over and plucked at his shirtsleeve. "What is that? Lavender? Lilac?" She tilted her head and checked out his shoulder armor. "Paired with magenta?"

He bridled. "What's wrong with it?"

"They're girl colors." She peered down her nose at him.

"What would you rather I wear?"

Nothing. It was the first thought that came into her mind. She flushed and turned her head away and looked at where the seat met the wall. She didn't want him to wear anything. So she could see the muscles of his chest, his arms, his legs and so she could see what he was hiding underneath his pants. She felt her temperature rising. She licked her lips and tried to come up with an answer. Nothing. The back of her neck heated. This could not be happening. She felt hot all over. What was the question anyways? Color? Skin. Or object? Nothing. They had been talking about color. She chose the first color that came to mind after peach. "Tan?" She still couldn't look at him. She flushed harder when she realized that tan was a skin tone too.

His eyebrow rose. Tan. He didn't think that was anywhere close to her real thoughts. Brown would not cause that all over body flush. He wasn't aware Rikku could flush like that. He licked his lips, tasting sweet. Would she look like that after sex? Pink and red under her tan? He blinked. Tan? Skin? He grinned. Who was he to pass up a chance to pick on her? "I don't think that was your first thought."

The flush turned hotter and she squirmed. "It was."

"Sure, because a color makes you turn that red. Your chest is red even." She was like a thermometer, set to 100 degrees.

She squeaked and covered her breasts with her arms. "Why are you looking? Pervert."

"You put them on display. I'm a guy. I'm gonna look." He took a sip of his drink. And appreciate them but it was best left unsaid. Rikku had a mean left hook. "So, what was your first thought?"

"Tan." She said and jutted her bottom jaw out. There was no way in the Farplane that he was going to get the true answer out of her.

"I doubt it."

She glared at him a second. "It was." But then the idea of him naked filled her mind and she turned away again. She fumbled for her drink. The glass was wonderfully cool. She took a gulp.

"Nope." He leaned closer and put his lips next to her ear. He waited until she swallowed. "Admit it. You want to see me naked."

Her fingers turned to gelatin and he had to catch her glass. "Gippal!" She hadn't felt cool for the past three minutes. She turned her head to glare at him and slammed her body against the wall when she realized how close he was, her eyes wide. "I- I- do- do-" She couldn't spit the last word out. It stuck in her throat. Her mouth opened and closed.

He snickered and set her glass down. He reached over and used his finger to shut her mouth. He couldn't resist a short caress along her jaw line. "I don't know. I'm very particular about things like that."

She used her eyes to look for the nearest screen. "The games back on."

He lazily glanced at it, shrugged and turned back to her. "Not interested anymore."

She grabbed her glass and chugged the rest of it. She set it back on the table. "Bully for me."

"Now where was I?" He pretended to try and remember and watched Rikku press her mouth shut and her cheeks get pink again. "Particular." He moved closer until their thighs touched.

She narrowed her eyes and told her stomach to stay put and her hopes not to get too hopeful. It wouldn't surprise her if he was teasing her for the sake of teasing her. She pressed against the wall more and bit her lip. She didn't like being cornered. Why hadn't she offered to switch places with him so she could run if she wanted to? Oh right, she'd been too busy admiring him without his knowledge. Stupid. Stupid. Maybe she could crawl under the table. She glanced down and inadvertently looked into his lap. She flushed again. Okay, bad idea. Damn it, she knew all about sex. There was absolutely no reason for her to be all flustered like this. Except, it was Gippal who still thought she was innocent. And she was innocent in the fact she hadn't had sex with a man. Did her own fingers really count? Tingles shot from her stomach to her extremities. She groaned. She was thinking about masturbation while Gippal was sitting right next to her. She needed more to drink. She reached over and grabbed his.

"Hey, that's mine."

"I paid for it." She pulled it to her.

"I paid for yours." He grabbed it before she could lift it. "Which sort of makes this like a date."

She tugged on it, and some splashed on her hand. She growled, let go and licked the webbing between her thumb and pointer finger, not realizing how his brain would interpret it. "If it was a date, you'd have paid for both." She pointed out before sucking off her thumb.

Gippal stared in fascination and a little need. Holy shoopuf shit, that was sexy. He choked and then found his voice. "I said sort of."

She paused, glanced at him, flushed and put her hands in her lap. Shouldn't we date before the nakedness? She thought or she thought she thought.

"That is the usual order." He snickered.

She covered her face with her hands and slumped downwards into the seat. "You aren't helping my thinking."

"Oh, you were thinking that. Seems to me you said it out loud." He placed his arm along the back of the booth. "Which makes for better communication." He looked at the top of her head. "As does looking at your face."

"I'm not looking at you. I've looked at you enough."

He smirked. She had been looking earlier. He pushed his drink away with his finger. He didn't really like it that much, but it was distinctive enough to keep the bartender remembering him. He reached over and grabbed one of her hands. His doubts from earlier forgotten. Maybe he should haul her about like baggage, if it meant he got what he wanted. She probably wouldn't resist too much, if she wanted to date him and see him naked. "Come on." He pulled on her arm.

She sat firm a few moments. "Where?"

He tugged, sliding her across the seat. "To dinner." He grinned at her. "I'm paying."

She lowered her hand and blinked at him. The flush on her cheeks faded. Could he really be…? "A- a date."

He raised his eyebrow. "Yeah."

She looked at their entwined hands and chewed on her bottom lip. Did she really want to go down this road? What if he didn't love her? What if- She inwardly shook her head. If she didn't try, how would she know? She stood up and threw some gil on the table. "All right." She peered at him under her lashes and reclaimed her dominion over sex. "Then I get to see you naked."

He chuckled and led her out of the bar. "Only if it's reciprocal."

She flushed and hopped, skipped and jumped to catch up with his longer limbs. She looked up at him and batted her eyelashes. "Maybe, I'm very particular about things like that."

He laughed and she laughed right along with him.

--

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